Surface Prog Chart
I am going to break explain what some of this means, I do not intend for this to be instruction, just sharing to others outside and inside the aviation community resources that I have found useful in my time as a 220-hour Helicopter pilot. Statistics show that the first 1000 hours are the most critical to making a safe and efficient pilot. That is why I am sharing this information, so that pilots like me, with low hours, can learn and grow in this profession.
Looking at the surface prog chart it is telling us that there is a cold front moving across the eastern portion of the united states, moving west along that same blue line (cold front) is a stationary front, you will see two red half circles and two blue triangles, This is what a stationary front looks like on a surface prog chart. A stationary front is when a cold air mass and a warm air mass aren't moving fast enough or powerful enough to overtake the other air mass. This can cause some thunderstorms if there is enough warming, updraft, and moisture.
Aviation Weather Overview
This is an interactive weather overview provided by Aviationweather.gov which is an official FAA approved weather source. If you look at the surface prog chart you will notice orange dashed lines, those are known as a trough, which is an area known for bad weather. Here on the weather overview, we see turbulence, IFR, convective Sigmets, thunderstorms and mountain obscuration. This is the type of weather you can expect to see when you encounter troughs on weather charts, bad, nasty flying weather.
It's always good to know what are the most important and critical symbols on weather charts because if you know them well, when you do see them (which is normally pretty rare), you will be more knowledgeable when it comes to aeronautical decision making (ADM). Being prepared for a flight is the best way to have a safe flight, hope you enjoyed this post, let me know if you're a weather geek and want more of this crap. Peach out Steemit.
